Stuhr, John J. (Ed.) : Pennsylvania State University
Summary
Pragmatism and Classical American Philosophy, now revised and expanded in this second edition, presents
the essential writings of the major philosophers of this tradition: Charles S. Peirce, William James, Josiah Royce,
George Santayana, John Dewey, and George Herbert Mead. Illuminating introductory essays, written especially for
this volume by distinguished scholars of American philosophy, provide biographical and cultural context as well
as original critical and interpretive perspectives. This edition also includes all new selections and interpretive
essays that situate pragmatism and classical American philosophy in a wider American philosophical context, including:
Ralph Waldo Emerson and transcendentalism; Jane Addams, feminism, and writings of American women; Borden Parker
Bowne, personalism, and idealism; Alain Locke and Afro-American thought; and John Herman Randall, Jr., nationalism
and realism. Up-to-date suggestions for further reading will benefit both introductory and advanced readers.
This American intellectual tradition speaks insightfully, creatively, and critically to our contemporary global
society and its pressing problems. In unmatched quality and quantity, Pragmatism and Classical American Philosophy
provides the resources necessary to understand and act on these insights.
Is the only collection in American thought that presents substantial and representative writings by all the
major pragmatists and other classical American philosophers.
Contains, in this second, expanded edition, even more material than the first edition, all of it drawn from
definitive and critical edition texts.
Features introductory, interpretive essays, written specially for this volume by internationally
Includes key materials that provide historical and philosophical context for pragmatism and classical American
philosophy -- including American transcendalism, idealism and personalism, realism and naturalism, feminism and
writings by American women, and Afro-American thought -- as well as many suggestions for further reading.
Table of Contents
Contributors
Preface
INTRODUCTION: CLASSICAL AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY
I. Prologue
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Introduction
The American Scholar
Self-Reliance
Suggestions for Further Reading
II. Classical American Philosophy CHARLES SANDERS PEIRCE
Introduction
Some Consequences of Four Incapacities
The Fixation of Belief
How to Make Our Ideas Clear
The Doctrine of Necessity Examined
The Categories and the Study of Signs
What Pragmatism Is
Issues of Pragmatism
A Neglected Argument for the Reality of God
Suggestions for Further Reading
WILLIAM JAMES
Introduction
The Types of Philosophic Thinking
The Stream of Thought
A World of Pure Experience
What Pragmatism Means
The Moral Philosopher and the Moral Life
The Dilemma of Determinism
The Will to Believe
Suggestions for Further Reading
JOSIAH ROYCE
Introduction
The Temporal and the Eternal
The Body and the Members
The Will to Interpret
Loyalty to Loyalty, Truth, and Reality
Loyalty and Religion
Provincialism
Suggestions for Further Reading
GEORGE SANTAYANA
Introduction
The Genteel Tradition in American Philosophy
Some Meanings of the Word "Is"
Skepticism
Essence
Substance
Teleology and Psyche
Hypostatic Ethics
The Implied Being of Truth
Spirit
Liberation
Suggestions for Further Reading
JOHN DEWEY
Introduction
The Need for a Recovery of Philosophy
The Postulate of Immediate Empiricism
Experience and Philosophic Method
Existence as Precarious and Stable
Nature, Communication, and Meaning
The Pattern of Inquiry
Education as Growth
The Lost Individual
Search for the Great Community
The Live Creature and Aesthetic Experience
Faith and Its Object
Suggestions for Further Reading
GEORGE HERBERT MEAD
Introduction
The Vocal Gesture and the Significant Symbol
Thought, Communicaitn, and the Signficant Symbol
Meaning
The Nature of Reflective Intelligence
The Nature of Scientific Knowledge
Play, the Game, and the Generalized OTher
The "I" and the "Me"
The Philosophical Basis of Ethics
Science Raises Problems for Philosophy -- Realism and Pragmatism
The Present as the Locus of Reality
Suggestions for Further Reading
III. CONTEXTS FEMINISM AND THE WRITINGS OF AMERICAN WOMEN
Introduction
Jane Addams: A Function of the Social Settlement
Suggestions for Further Reading
AMERICAN IDEALISM AND PERSONALISM
Introduction
Borden Parker Bowne: The Failure of Impersonalism
Suggestions for Further Reading
AFRICAN AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY
Introduction
Alain Locke: The Ethics of Culture, Values, and Imperatives
Suggestions for Further Reading
AMERICAN NATURALISM
Introduction
John Herman Randall, Jr.: Empirical Pluralism and Unifications of Nature
Suggestions for Further Reading
